Generation, Transmission, and Amplification of OAM Modes in the PbSe-Doped Ring-Core Fiber Carrying 3D Printed Spiral Phase Plate

Abstract

Vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have increasingly attracted attention in the field of optical communication. However, transmission is still an issue due to transmission loss, especially in optical fibers. In this work, we proposed, designed, and fabricated micro spiral phase plates (SPPs) directly on an end facet of a piece of PbSe-doped ring-core fiber (RCF) through two-photon polymerization, realizing the integration of OAM beam generation, transmission, and amplification. The prepared RCF comprises a double-clad structure with a core-clad refractive index difference of 2.2% and the fluorescence range is 1150 nm–1700 nm. The intensity distribution of the OAM beam and the spiral interference fringes were obtained, which indicated that the OAM mode (|l|=1, 2, 3, 4) was generated and transmitted directly within the fiber. The small-signal amplification of four OAM modes was accomplished at 1550 nm under a pump power of 634 mW. The on–off gain is >13.2 dB for all modes and the differential mode gain (DMG) is <1.7 dB. The SPP-carrying RCF structure demonstrates the integration of generation, transmission, and amplification of higher-order OAM modes in all-fiber systems.